Le Centre de recherche METICES de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), l’Institut Wallon de l’Évaluation, de la Prospective et de la Statistique (IWEPS) and the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS) at the University of California, San Diego are delighted to announce the holding of the international conference.

“International Migration Politics and Policies in Europe and the U.S.: Gender and Class Perspectives”

White Backlash provides an authoritative assessment of how immigration is reshaping the politics of the nation. Using an array of data and analysis, Marisa Abrajano and Zoltan Hajnal show that fears about immigration fundamentally influence white Americans’ core political identities, policy preferences, and electoral choices, and that these concerns are at the heart of a large-scale defection of whites from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

Abrajano and Hajnal demonstrate that this political backlash has disquieting implications for the future of race relations in America. White Americans’ concerns about Latinos and immigration have led to support for policies that are less generous and more punitive and that conflict with the preferences of much of the immigrant population. America’s growing racial and ethnic diversity is leading to a greater racial divide in politics. As whites move to the right of the political spectrum, racial and ethnic minorities generally support the left. Racial divisions in partisanship and voting, as the authors indicate, now outweigh divisions by class, age, gender, and other demographic measures.

White Backlash raises critical questions and concerns about how political beliefs and future elections will change the fate of America’s immigrants and minorities, and their relationship with the rest of the nation.

The book explores the diverse immigrant experiences in urban West Africa, where some groups integrate seamlessly while others face exclusion and violence. It shows, counterintuitively, that cultural similarities between immigrants and their hosts do not help immigrant integration and may, in fact, disrupt it. This book is one of the first to describe and explain in a systematic way immigrant integration in the developing world, where half of all international migrants go. It relies on intensive fieldwork tracking two immigrant groups in three host cities, and draws from in-depth interviews and survey data to paint a picture of the immigrant experience from both immigrant and host perspectives.

Priority is given to research related to binational and border issues, but the consortium has a wider interest in issues related to energy, the environment, education and health. The deadline for proposals is March 1st and the call is attached.

Proposals can be submitted directly to puentes@rice.edu but I would like to encourage prospective applicants to notify me of their application as well.

The large number of Central American refugees who crossed the Rio Grande in 2014 arrived with harrowing stories about current conditions in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, as well as the dangerous journey through Mexico. Their arrival in the U.S. also generated a range of emotional responses and demands for action, from anti-immigrant protests to calls for humanitarian aid and economic development to the swift militarization of the border. Building from this moment, this panel will explore the relation between affect and action within the longer history of immigration in North America. How have those in the Global North imagined suffering in the Americas and their relation to it? What do their responses to migrants (and to migrant narratives) reveal about the political efficacy of emotion?

Proposals from all disciplines are welcome. Potential papers might consider: affect in the debate over immigration; representations of migrants in literature, visual art, performance and film; activism and theatricality; expressions of empathy, sentimentality, and/or moral outrage; structures of feeling in the “North”; the evolving symbolic role of the North/El Norte; the historic and contemporary role of Canada as refuge.

Please send abstracts (200-300 words) and brief CV by Jan. 5 to Stephen Park (stephen.park@utb.edu). Inquiries before that are welcome.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE SIXTH ANNUAL
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION CONFERENCE

Despite the lack of Congressional legislation on immigration policy, there have been significant policy developments on immigrant integration and immigration enforcement at the national, state, and local levels. Immigration policy has also been an important area of activity in other countries, and in the work of international organizations.

How are we to make sense of all this?

The Sixth Annual UC conference on international migration is pleased to welcome scholarship on immigration policy, at any level of analysis, on any topic, and from any social science discipline. The focus on policy is especially timely, as UC Riverside launches its new School of Public Policy. In addition to paper presentations, we plan to have a keynote speaker on immigration policy in California (to be announced).

Those interested in presenting should email ucmigrationconference@gmail.com with a title and abstract of 150-200 words. We will provide free accommodations and travel subsidies (up to 100%) for all presenters at the conference.Please note the following criteria and deadlines, and please share widely.

ELIGIBILITY: Ph.D. candidates and faculty members in the University of California who are paper authors or coauthors

Anecdotal evidence suggests that a significant percentage of unauthorized immigrants are potentially eligible for some sort of immigration relief, but they either do not know it or are not able to pursue lawful immigration status for other reasons. However, no published study the authors are aware of has systematically analyzed this question. The study attempts to answer the question of the number of unauthorized immigrants who, without knowing it, may already be potentially eligible for lawful immigration status.